Half a million people used food banks in the last year in the UK. Charitable support programmes are rapidly expanding but nonetheless a quarter of families are shrinking portion sizes. 5,500 people were admitted to hospital for malnutrition last year.

The massive growth in the numbers going hungry has been fuelled by rapidly rising food prices (30.5% increase in 5 years), stagnant and falling real incomes, unemployment, casualization of work and incompetency in reform of the benefit system. 30% of those visiting food banks do so because their benefits have been delayed, 15% because they are under sanction.

Social justice

It is great that so many volunteers and churches have responded to the rise in food poverty by starting up practical responses such as Foodbanks. But we also need to care about these underlying causes: we need to speak up about the conditions which are creating this demand. Our enthusiasm for…